Nine years after he was pitched overboard by Matt Millen for Steve Mariucci, Marty Mornhinweg could be headed back to the top job for an NFL team.
Via our corporate cousins at CSNPhilly.com, an online oddsmaker has installed Mornhinweg as the favorite to replace Jim Caldwell.
If this comes to pass, Mornhinweg would be the first ex-Lions head coach to be hired for another NFL/AFL head coaching job since George Wilson left Detroit to take over the Dolphins in 1966*. Wilson jumped leagues for his new job, so to find an ex-Lions head coach who was hired elsewhere in the NFL, you’ve got to go back to Wilson’s predecessor, Buddy Parker, who went from Detroit to the top job with Pittsburgh back in 1957.
*Dick Jauron was an interim head coach in 2005 and later was the head man in Buffalo, but that’s the closest they’ve gotten.
This is a horrifying image for San Francisco 49ers fans. The weather at Candlestick Park this Saturday is expected to be sunny, clear, with light winds, and temperatures hitting as high as 67 degrees. Sounds great for a bike ride at Candlestick Point, but it’s looking more and more like the legendary swirling winds and bitter cold at The ‘Stick won’t descend until Sunday, too late to help knock off the New Orleans Saints juggernaut.
Of all the corrupt things surrounding college athletics, no matter what they may say in Boise, postseason reform is small potatoes. While the BCS as a championship system could be better, it isn’t wrong. It’s obviously imperfect, and its potential for error and PR catastrophe is high. But as things go in the broken world of college sports, the BCS is one of the few things that does what it says it will. The sport it influences so greatly is overwhelmingly popular and lucrative on nearly every level. Until the masses stop acknowledging its champions, to call the BCS illegitimate is disingenuous. What’s wrong is how poorly players are compensated for their efforts. What’s worse is how powerless they are to do anything about it. And if that’s not bad enough, their plight is ignored while a friggin’ playoff is discussed using terms like “access” and “opportunity,” the sort of rhetoric used in fights for civil rights.
A few weeks ago, I was talking with a high-level NFL executive who told me, based on talking directly with the Broncos, that the team’s original plan was to play Tebow a few weeks for the fans, and then start with the rebuilding process. Tebow was former coach Josh McDaniels’ pick and the Broncos, according to this executive, wanted to move on. They wanted nothing to do with the McDaniels’ regime.
— Michael Lombardi, reporting that Tim Tebow was, apparently, supposed to fall on his face, and ruined a well-laid plan. If true, this is exceptionally damning of Broncos brass, who sent a player on the field specifically to fail instead of seeking out what they thought was a better solution.
[Jen] Wiley’s son, now 4 years old, is actually named Spurrier Urban Wiley, after Florida’s two national championship winning coaches — Steve Spurrier and Meyer - but after Meyer’s move to the Big Ten, Wiley wants to change her son’s middle name.
Here’s your lesson for the day: don’t name your child after someone who has a pretty good chance of disappointing you. And if that namesake does disappoint you, use it as a teachable moment.
The SEC is only viewed as the best conference when it is convenient — when Boise State drilled Georgia in Week 1, I heard many people around the country say, “Eh, Georgia isn’t any good.” But when Georgia reached the SEC title game and should have led LSU 21-0 in the first half (but, instead, only led 10-0, thanks to dropped passes and general shakiness) the story shifted into the greatness of the SEC. Jeff Sagarin’s Ratings, which seem to be the most respected in the business, rank the Big 12 as the BETTER conference.
Paging Uni Watch! I don’t know if his jersey has been that way from the start of the season, but it looks like LSU linebacker Lamin Barrow’s jersey has backward Rs on the nameplate.
Uni Watch just blew my mind with a close examination of a famous photograph of Dwight Clark’s catch in the NFC Championship game played at Candlestick Park in January 1982.
